Selasa, Juni 26, 2012

Who ya gonna call when it’s time to bust some illegal aliens? The answer of course for team Tommy and Will is Danny Elfman, who dons his dark sunglasses and suit to hit the trail with the Men in Black. That proves to be a real charm the third time out for this time-travelling entry that gives a huge, rejuvenating boost to the franchise after an unholy second film (not that Elfman’s music has ever been worse for the wear). Time travel’s the McGuffin that brings Agent J and K back to the 60’s to stop another alien plot to blast the Earth, a period that Elfman acknowledges with an acid rock electric guitar, while saluting the 1950’s retro bug-eyed monster premise with humorous use of the ooo-wee-ooo Theremin. But mostly, this score doesn’t fix what was never broken, relying once again on a great main theme to power through its frenetic action, along with the bongos of Will Smith’s unaging urban hipness. Elfman is at his best when handling satirical genre pics like this, “Hellboy 2” and “Dark Shadows,” bringing on the glee of a kid playing cowboy in a room full on creature suits, an energy which reaches new, delirious heights here while never letting us forget the planet’s in truly dramatic peril. At once bewaring its alien rogues gallery while luxuriating in the choral magic of the nicer E.T.’s, Elfman also manages some truly touching flute and guitar emotion in the ties that bind J and K through the decades, a nice shot of character feeling that makes “MIB3” human after all.

Senin, Juni 25, 2012

Score produced by Danny Elfman and Steve BartekOrchestrations by Steve Bartek, Edgardo Simone and Dave SlonakerOrchestra conducted by Pete AnthonyScore recorded and mixed by Dennis Sands and Shawn MurphyAdditional arrangements by Edward Shearmur and T.J. LindgrenScore conforming by Deborah LurieScore recorded at Sony Picture Studios, Streisand Scoring Stage and Studio Della MorteScore mixed at Todd AO West

Score published by Colpix Music, Inc. (BMI), administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Berikut ini kutipan lengkap dari sutradara Barry Sonnenfeld:

The first time I met Danny I was intimidated. I had to walk through a spooky dark forest to get to his house. I was meeting one of my favorite composers of film scores, and I was about to hear the first cues he had written for Men in Black. (I won't mention his stuffed cat).

Danny's initial music was everything I wasn't looking for. It was light, breezy and funny. After taking a long breath, I told him what I hoped he'd do for the film: "Make MIB more manly. More emotional. Don't help me with the comedy. Please."

Danny got it instantly. His score for Men in Black was everything I hoped it would be. He made MIB feel big and muscular. His score for MIB3 is even more. Danny has creatively taken the familiar and made it new and unique. He uses the perfect themes from the first movie, and makes them new, hip, energetic and emotional.

In addition to writing a fantastic score, Danny is just great to work with. Smart, easy, friendly, funny, relaxed, surprisingly ego-less, and brilliant.

Jumat, Juni 22, 2012

Generally I don’t deal with temp scores. I don’t even listen to them. PLANET OF THE APES and RED DRAGON were exceptions where I did want to listen to the temp because I wanted to know what to avoid - both of those having previous movies and scores that went with them. One is a remake and one is a prequel to a really well known and very well done movie. I wanted to be aware of what Howard Shore had done in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, and then I thought, “All right, that’s what it is. I neither want to put all my energy into avoiding any nuance that’s similar, but also I want to make sure that I’m not directly falling into something that is the same.” If you put all your energy into avoiding something, then it becomes an obsessive thing that will eventually dictate the tone of the score, and I didn’t want to do that. Howard and I happen to have a lot of tonalities that are very similar. In PLANET OF THE APES, though, I heard the Jerry Goldsmith score and said, “What I’m doing is so radically different, I don’t even have to think about it. Having heard it now, I won’t even think about it again.” With RED DRAGON, it was different because tonally the movies are very similar, so it was something I had to be aware of. I knew already that Howard was one of the few composers with whom I’m going to have a certain amount of overlapping even on films that have nothing to do with each other. When SILENCE OF THE LAMBS came out, I remember thinking, “Wow, that was very close to BATMAN!” The main theme of BATMAN was working exactly the same scale as SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. I remember being relieved that I hadn’t been exposed to it because some people might have said, “Oh, one’s copying the other.” I knew he wasn’t referring to me in any way, but I’ve been aware since then that we tend to use the same kind of minor scale repeating motifs. Even though ultimately his style is much different than mine, there is an area, especially in a kind of modal, melodic, scale dynamic, that is similar, and I needed to be aware of that.

Danny Elfman is one of the greatest film composer's working today and he is indeed a very thematic composer. His scores usually are headlined by strong attention grabbing themes, and that is especially true for Men In Black. The first Men In Black was a wonderful film with a signature Elfman score. However, like most studio-pushed sequels the experience gets stretched way too thin. For this third outing Elfman's music still has energy, but it has definitely lost some steam.

I don't want to say that this score feels phoned in, but it does leave much to be desired. It doesn't have the wonder, mischief and mysterious flavors of the original or even the second one. I can't say I didn't enjoy hearing that sonic world again, but it would have been a lot more interesting if Elfman built more out of it than just pulled over the familiar.

While the new score yields remnants of the traditional “MiB” theme, as well as the standard Elfman-isms – dark, mirthful rhythmic mayhem spawned by “Beetlejuice” and “Batman” – he still finds a way to think outside the box and create a near-new sound palette for “Men In Black 3.” He incorporates a spatial romantic sensation in the string work, which vaguely harkens “Mars Attacks.” And the score is much more lyrical than any of his non-musical scores, and that conceptual style of music composition reads almost like a cross between Elfman’s 2006 solo album “Serenada Schizophrana” and the 1994 album “Boingo.”

There is a distinct band-like atmosphere throughout “Men In Black 3,” which is primarily the result of a drum kit, the predominant expressiveness of percussion, and the atmospherically jolting use of electric guitar. He also makes solid use of Carl Stalling-inspired brass arrangements that gives the score an edge of cartoon-iness that warps your sense of reality – those moments of pure, psycho-imaginative Elfman that keep you on the edge of your seat. The “Men In Black 3” score seems to bear an underlying sense of rejuvenation that really hasn’t bled to the surface since 2008’s “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.”

Rabu, Juni 13, 2012

“I fell into writing; it wasn’t my choice,” he says. “When I grew up I didn’t play any instruments and I took no music lessons. I wanted to be involved with film but composing was the last side of it that I imagined doing. I imagined myself being an editor, maybe special effects.”

He adds: “If you’d have asked me when I was 17 or 18-years-old what I wanted to me I may have said cinematographer or maybe a director but something in film. But I never would have said music; that was quite accidental.”

Where Men In Black 3 succeeds most, believe it or not, are actually the rock-influenced moments; the sequences anchored by divebombing electric guitar and up-tempo drumming which-although only appearing for brief moments at a time-are easily the most fresh and attention-grabbing moments of the score.

Elsewhere, most of Men In Black 3 (see: "Griffin Steps Up" and "The Prize") is par-for-the-course, classic Elfman; an expected exercise in excellence from a man who, at this point, can almost always be trusted to deliver the goods.

DARK SHADOWS can only be wholeheartedly recommended to those with an intense love for all things ELFMAN and BURTON. It certainly has its moments, but is ultimately evidence that the eternal trio is one in need of a shake-up.

Buy it... if Danny Elfman can do no wrong for you when he explores gothic romanticism with a violent edge, a personality perfectly fitting for this morbidly brooding and forcefully elegant topic.

Avoid it... if twenty minutes of easily accessible thematic highlights are not enough to compensate for an otherwise dissonant and inconsistent midsection that challenges the ears more often than it clarifies the narrative.Overall, Dark Shadows is one of those fascinating scores that has all the characteristics that Elfman fans crave the most, but the composer doesn't really collect all of his ideas and tones into one cohesive narrative.

As far as I am concerned, Men In Black 3 is the best one yet with a lot more antics and fun. It feels like the score has grown up and this is what we deserve from Men In Black and Danny Elfman. Some might not like the guitarwork while others prefer then previous scores, but I definitely enjoyed this.

But while “Dark Shadows’ might tragically falter from becoming a Tim Burton classic to ending up an admirable miss, Danny Elfman’s score shines as another subversive gem, added to a treasure chest that helped make him into the gonzo Prince of musical darkness. It’s work that’s all the more admirable when the spooky-ooky ride gets bumpy, let alone for turning a project’s inherent goofiness from the get-out into a thing of true endearment and supernatural power.